Most Influential 2019

One of the great things about reporting on the blockchain/crypto industry is the infinite variety of interesting, smart people doing bold, crazy things. From daring entrepreneurs and builders, to inspired thinkers and communicators, this space has no shortage of colorful characters pushing the envelope. It’s in this spirit that we present this year’s Most Influential, a selection of people who did exceptional things in 2019. Whether it was Caitlin Long establishing Wyoming as the “blockchain state,” or Rune Christensen corralling MakerDAO, or David Marcus launching Libra, these people made an impact and shaped the conversation, for better or for worse.

The selection was made in a three-step process. First, staff drew up a longlist. Then, we asked readers to vote for their favorites in a survey. Then, based on all opinions, we made a final choice. Note: People are chosen for having exemplary years, perhaps the most significant year of their careers. This is not an all-time influencer list; some well-known OGs were not included. For instance, Jack Dorsey made the cut this year for not only championing bitcoin in Silicon Valley, but funding a development team to work on its core protocol. Gerald Cotten of Quadriga infamy helped us learn (again) the truth of the old adage: “not your keys, not your coins.”

Whatever your views of this selection may be, we hope you enjoy the discussion it is likely to spark. Debate, bicker, ponder, but most of all, tag #mostinfluential2019 on Twitter. Happy Holidays.

Jack Dorsey

This year, Jack Dorsey emerged as the leading rep of bitcoin culture in Silicon Valley.

The Twitter co-founder and Square CEO is more relatable and trustworthy than Mark Zuckerberg and more rounded than Elon Musk, the weed-smoking mogul with a pop star girlfriend.

When asked if he would consider joining Facebook’s Libra Association, Dorsey replied: “Hell no.” Instead, he is betting on a different approach to mass technology: borderless and permissionless assets.

Caitlin Long

Wyoming residents Caitlin Long and Chris Land drop a bombshell at Consensus Invest, a blockchain industry event in Manhattan on November 12. They do it rather quietly, on a minimally attended panel Long moderates called “Beyond the Vault: The Legal Aspects of Crypto Custody.”

The panelists include general counsel of crypto exchange Kraken Mary Beth Buchanan, former SEC commissioner Annette Nazareth, and Land, general counsel at the Wyoming Division of Banking. They spend most of the panel exchanging legal jargon with digital asset expert Long, who spearheaded the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force’s efforts – where Land was also counsel – until it dissolved this September. The Task Force had realized its goal of making Wyoming the country’s most crypto-friendly state.

“This is untested,” says Land, “but we are feeling confident that the Wyoming Special Purpose Depository Institutions will be able to operate in New York without a BitLicense.”

Andrew Yang

There’s no doubt about it: Andrew Yang has Big Crypto Energy. The 44-year-old appears to be the only current presidential candidate to have an official policy on cryptocurrency. To wit: “Create clear guidelines in the digital asset world so that businesses and individuals can invest and innovate in the area without fear of a regulatory shift.” (Not even Elizabeth Warren, who’s spoken skeptically of crypto, has a plan for that.) Yang advocates for, among other things, clear token definitions and tax rules; he’s vowed to work with sponsors of the Token Taxonomy Act and Wyoming legislators. (He is also a proponent of blockchain voting.) “Other countries, which are ahead of us on [crypto] regulation, are leading in this new marketplace and dictating the rules that we’ll need to follow once we catch up,” Yang wrote in a November blog post.

David Marcus

Can David Marcus convince us to trust Facebook with the future of money? He’s trying, and it might work.

Marcus is the urbane, quick-witted face of the Libra project, the entrepreneur who does not crack under pressure, despite constant haranguing from all quarters. When Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook may not be the “ideal messenger” for Libra, he has Marcus – who is warmer, more cosmopolitan and better spoken than his boss – to take up the mantle.

Friends say he is persistent and resilient. “That type of opposition and that type of resistance, I think it is what fuels him,” says Hill Ferguson, who worked with Marcus at Zong, a mobile payments company, in California.

Sergey Nazarov

Sergey Narazov is the 31-year-old son of Russian immigrants who moved to New York in the early ’90s. Both of his parents were engineers and they weaned him on computers from an early age. He recalls being only around five years old when he first sat in front of a keyboard. He was reading programming manuals in middle school. Growing up, he remembers being obsessed with Legos, taking old cathode-ray televisions apart to see what made them tick, and playing a lot of real-time strategy video games. As a student at New York University, he majored in Philosophy & Management ― but it was clear to him early on that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. In 2010, he served as a teaching assistant to NYU Professor Lawrence Lenihan, the founder of the early-stage investment company Firstmark Capital, and he followed that up with a six-month stint at Firstmark doing technical due diligence on technology startups.

“The reason I took that job over other jobs,” says Nazarov, “was because I wanted to learn how people build technology companies.”

Rune Christensen

In the early days, when MakerDAO was just a loose collective of coders and thinkers, Rune Christensen would hold court and talk for hours about his vision for decentralized finance, or DeFi. So much so that his colleagues came to refer to these long sessions as “Rune Radio.”

As MakerDAO has become the most important project in DeFi, and DeFi has emerged as the most viable corner of the ethereum world, Christensen, who is Danish, 29, and very tall, hasn’t stopped talking. With a mop of distinctive blond hair and a manner that isn’t especially disposed to humor, he is relentless about the project he’s helped create. But then there is a lot to talk about: MakerDAO has a novel and complex structure, which takes time to understand.

Meltem Demirors

When Meltem Demirors was first starting out in the working world, she had two very distinct sides: Corporate Meltem and Fun Meltem. Corporate Meltem was, by her own description, “cutthroat,” highly organized, all about project plans and deliverables. She was working in the oil and gas industry, employed by Deloitte as a strategy consultant, and then for a short time as a corporate treasury analyst at ExxonMobil. The other Meltem was just as intense, but in a different way. “Fun Meltem was like, ‘Let’s explore all of the weirdness in the world and go to music festivals and go live in the desert of Morocco with a goat herder,’” she says.

Muneeb Ali

Muneeb Ali has lived more than a decade in New York City, becoming a feted Web 3.0 entrepreneur in that time and the beneficiary of millions in startup funding. But it hasn’t gone to his head.

Ali set up Blockstack, a “decentralized computing network and app ecosystem,” in 2013. The goal was nothing less than building “the missing link in the internet,” according to Brittany Laughlin, the group’s head of investor relations. Laughlin helped incubate the company during its early phases when she worked at Union Square Ventures, a VC firm known for its early investments in startups like Twitter, Etsy and Coinbase.

Ted Livingston

Ted Livingston is fighting the Securities and Exchange Commission on a point of crypto principle. Call him foolhardy or brave, he hasn’t backed down.

Some background. Livingston is the Canadian founder of Kik Interactive, a messaging app that gained one million users in 15 days when it launched in 2010, well before rivals like Facebook Messenger got off the ground. By the time Tencent, the Chinese internet giant, invested $50 million in the summer of 2015, Kik was valued at $1 billion. Then, in 2017, Livingston made a fateful decision. Rather than raising more VC money, he launched an ICO, selling off kin tokens for more than $100 million

Gerald Cotten

Mystery Man Gerald Cotten died leaving his customers with next-to-nothing. Or did he? Have we learned nothing from the weirdest, most explosive story of the year? “Gerald Cotten, CEO of QuadrigaCx died about a month ago,” said the message, sent to CoinDesk’s news inbox on Jan. 2, 2019, roughly two weeks before the exchange announced Cotten’s exit from this world.

“His death has been kept a secret because there are no funds and the whole company will collapse if a sell off occurs,” said the sender, who claimed to have attended Cotten’s funeral service but did not identify himself.

I sent follow-up questions but got no response back.

Holdlonaut

When Craig Wright tried to intimidate a cat in an astronaut’s mask, bitcoiners changed their avatars to “We are Hodlonaut” in solidarity. We talked to the real Holdlonaut – a man from Norway – about the experience.

The most influential archetype in bitcoin is the pseudonymous man.

In 2019, another mystery man suddenly emerged on Crypto Twitter as a folk hero representing the freedom to speak the truth and maintain one’s own privacy. It was the feline astronaut Hodlonaut.

In April 2019, Hodlonaut took to Twitter to castigate Craig Wright, who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto despite skepticism and inconclusive evidence. The tweet (now deleted) reportedly called Wright “mentally ill” and a “pathetic scammer.” So Wright and his supporters promptly started preparing to sue Hodlonaut, even offering a bounty to anyone who could discover the space-cat’s identity.

Reference: Coindesk

Tags: #Blockchain, #Crypto, #Cryptocurrency, #Mostinfluential2019

Source: https://xeonbit.com/most-influential-2019/

China: Impounded Nearly 7000 Crypto Mining Machines

CCTV reported on Dec 22nd, Chinese authorities have seized nearly 7000 crypto mining machines, illegally consuming electric power.

The cryptocurrency mining confiscation came as part of an inspection of more than 70,000.00 households, 3,061 merchants, 1,470 communities, as well as factories, mines, courtyards and villages in the Kaiping District of Tangshan city. The inspection was carried out by Tangshan police in collaboration with State Electric Power Department and other authorities looking to inspect suspicious electricity use.

During the investigation, which initially started in April last year, the authorities seized 6,890 ASIC miners and 52 high-power transformers. According to the police, crypto miners were stealing electricity from a nearby village. The police also said that Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines were operating 24 hours a day, consuming electricity at rates up to 40 times those of a regular family.

Crackdown on crypto mining

China, whose BTC miners are currently responsible for as much as 66% of global hash rate, has been actively fighting illicit use of energy by crypto miners. In mid-November, regulators in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region tightened their grip on crypto mining companies, as they intend to dispatch inspection units to assure the “clean-up and rectification of crypto token mining companies” in the region.

Some other jurisdictions like Abkhazia have also intensified work on the identification of crypto mining farms. The government brought to notice earlier in December that the significantly increased loads on electric networks were aggravated by the emergence of an ever-growing number of illegal crypto mining farms connected to a local power utility.

Reference: Cointelegraph

Tags: #China, #Cryptocurrency, #Mining

Source: https://xeonbit.com/china-impounded-nearly-7000-crypto-mining-machines/

Misunderstanding about Blockchain From Us

Bloomberg announced a 60% decline in blockchain startup investments this year, down to $1.6 billion. But at the same time, large enterprises such as Microsoft, Walmart, IBM and Samsung have either deployed their own blockchains or joined partnerships to use the technology. Ironically, several banks, such as HSBC and JPMorgan Chase, have also developed their own blockchain arms — the same entities blockchain was supposed to replace. What happened? Why are public chains with the true spirit of decentralization fading away while early adversaries have turned into advocates of the technology?

Slow to adopt — but finally adopting

Governments and politicians were regularly called out for their failing to comprehend blockchain technology. Many initially ignored the crypto boom, which led to the scam-filled craze over initial coin offerings in 2017. Then, they started opposing, regulating and shutting down blockchain projects, which hurt the developing industry. But as time has passed, they are slowly embracing the technology in the right way.

One notable example is China, which had initially banned blockchain projects altogether. In late October 2019, President Xi Jinping took a U-turn by requiring China to make a “greater effort” toward blockchain development in order to gain an “edge over other major countries.” While cryptocurrencies were still banned, this showed that the tides were turning in favor of the still-nascent technology.

Public vs. private

It’s worth noting that enterprises have their own versions of the blockchain: “private” or “enterprise” blockchains. These differ on several fronts from traditional, “public” blockchains.

Contrary to public blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, not just anyone can join a private blockchain. Each node is specifically selected by the enterprise, which might require Know Your Customer procedures in some cases.

For the same reason, “trust” is established much easier. As the nodes are already identified, there is a much lower risk of bad actors trying to corrupt the chain. Even if they try, they cannot do it anonymously.

This leads to scalability. Since fewer nodes are involved and a different consensus mechanism can be used, the transactions become much faster. Hyperledger can run up to 20,000 transactions per second, whereas Ethereum runs 15.

In private blockchains, there is no need for “rewards.” Typical blockchain projects must pay the nodes for the work they do and the energy they consume. There is no point in doing this in a private chain, as the motivation behind the project is different.

Similarly, private chains are easier to update. Public chains require consensus from a majority of the participating nodes — and if there is a disagreement, it can lead to a split, where a new blockchain is born. There are no such requirements in enterprise chains, which means the code can be updated much easier and faster.

For these reasons, it is much easier to launch a private chain. “In the near term, more projects will probably use private to learn the onboarding process and use that first, adopting public blockchains where appropriate or required,” said Nate D’Amico, the chief technology officer of the Nem Foundation, a provider of blockchain technology capable of taking the form of both a public chain and a private solution.

But public chains are favorable for different reasons: for when you need to connect individuals who have no information about each other but still need to collaborate and transact. That was why Bitcoin (BTC) was born — to enable peer-to-peer transactions without middlemen. This begs the question: Do we need enterprise blockchains at all? When we discard the primary characteristics of blockchain, why can’t we just use a distributed database?

The use case of blockchain

It turns out there are some actual advantages in using blockchain technology, even for enterprises. Among them are commercial concerns. Enterprises strictly control the nodes that join their network, but that does not mean they dictate how the system operates. Where several competitors need to collaborate, blockchain offers the ideal medium to cooperate in a less trust environment without giving too much power to one party. This may sometimes even be a political concern, such as when there is no central location to host the database that would be acceptable to all parties. Decentralisation also prevents one side from overcharging for their middleman services.

Finally, there are security concerns. Blockchain comes with built-in redundancy, encryption, synchronization and tamper resistance. “Blockchain architecture is fundamentally designed differently in that openness, collaboration, and data interactions among many parties actually make the database technology more secure and reliable,” D’Amico said. Thus, blockchain offers one of the best methods to preserve data.

But this benefit also has certain drawbacks. “A grey area for both private and public ledger/blockchain adoption are regulations like GDPR and organizations that choose to persist Personally Identifiable Information and other related data on-chain,” D’Amico explained. “Depending on how the network is run, such as globally distributed network, you don’t control where copies of the data reside, and you don’t have any recourse to ‘the right to be forgotten’ as data is inherently immutable and cannot be removed from history.”

The middlemen

Contrary to popular belief, it seems that blockchain is not going to replace central authorities. Rather, the trend suggests that semi-centralised, government-regulated versions will have the highest chance of survival. Startups are learning the hard way that they need to comply with governmental regulations — not because they are submitting to a higher authority, but simply because of public interest. At the end of the day, blockchain requires you to trust codes and algorithms over human counterparts, and some are not ready to do so. Trusting codes and algorithms may work great for simple cases, but edge cases need oracles and human authorities to dispute.

Still, blockchain’s ability to offer an immutable and tamper-proof ledger can help to prevent the authorities from misusing their power. Just like most other technologies, finding a human–computer balance is the best use of blockchain.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views opinions and referencing from Cointelegraph.

Tags: #Blockchain, #China, #HSBC, #IBM, #JPMorganChase, #Microsoft, #Walmart

Source: https://xeonbit.com/misunderstanding-about-blockchain-from-us/

European Central Bank is developing Payment System That Protects User Privacy

Recent research by the European Central Bank (ECB) claims that it is possible to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) payment system that protects user privacy.

Per the report dubbed “Exploring anonymity in central bank digital currencies,” the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) established a proof-of-concept (PoC) for anonymity in CBDCs, which came as part of its ongoing research of CBDCs and their potential benefits to the public. The dedicated PoC was developed in collaboration with tech companies R3 and Accenture.

Corda-based PoC

The ESCB used R3’s open-source blockchain platform Corda to develop a PoC featuring four parties such as two intermediaries, a central bank and an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) authority. Each party was represented in the network by a node that operated a CorDapp, which enables assets to be transferred between the entities.

Within
the PoC, the bank built a solution for AML/combating the financing of
terrorism (CFT) compliance procedures, which kept user identities and
transaction histories anonymous i.e. neither the central bank nor
intermediaries other than those chosen by the user could see the data.

“To
protect users’ privacy, the notary has no access to data such as
transaction values, users’ addresses or states’ histories,” the report
read, adding:

“The proof of concept shows
that it is possible, using the Corda platform, to build a simplified
CBDC payment system that safeguards users’ privacy for lower-value
transactions, while still ensuring that higher-value transactions are
subject to mandatory AML/CFT checks.”

Issues to be improved

However,
the bank noted an array of issues that purportedly needed to be
improved including reducing the amount of information visible to parties
that are not involved in the transactions, and users’ ability to access
or spend CBDC balances when the intermediary is unavailable.

The ECB stated that privacy could be further improved by applying mechanisms such as rotating public keys, zero-knowledge proofs and enclave computing.

The
bank further noted that issues of scalability were not addressed or
tested in the PoC and that interoperability with a real-time gross
settlement system must also be researched.

Regulator concerns abound regarding CBDCs

The ECB’s research seems to nominally address concerns previously expressed by world regulators regarding digital currencies. Earlier in December, European Union authorities outlined multiple risks and issues associated with the adoption of stablecoins, arguing that if adopted on a global scale, stablecoins pose a threat to monetary sovereignty, privacy and cybersecurity.

Just recently, the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, said that the financial institution should be ahead of the curve regarding the demand for stablecoins. In late August, the ECB released a paper in which is stated that stablecoins with a clear governance framework may be hampered by uncertainty coming from a lack of regulation.

Reference: Cointelegraph

Tags: #AML, #CBDC, #CentralBanks, #ECB, #Privacy

Source: https://xeonbit.com/european-central-bank-is-developing-payment-system-that-protects-user-privacy/

Choosing Centralised Crypto Exchange? Follow 10 golden rules

Choosing the right centralised cryptocurrency exchange may be one of the most important initial tasks an interested trader or investor must complete. Picking the wrong platform could potentially lead down a road riddled with hacks, distractions and wasted effort.

When looking for the right exchange, interested parties must first know what they are looking to accomplish. For example, is the goal to simply invest on a longer term basis, or to trade in and out of positions regularly?

Investors might look to spot exchanges. These are platforms on which one can buy and sell actual digital assets themselves. Spot Bitcoin (BTC), for example, is actual Bitcoin that a person can buy, sell or transfer to any exchange or wallet at will and hold for as long as desirable.

Traders, on the other hand, might find interest in derivatives — trading products such as futures and options that are based on the price action of underlying spot assets.

These products trade contracts based on the price action of underlying assets, and can be settled into cash or digital assets, depending on the exchange. These contracts, however, are local to the exchanges hosting them, meaning they cannot be transferred to other locations.

After the trader has determined his or her objectives, it can be crucial to look into aspects such as country regulations, exchange security and a host of other aspects.

Below is a list of 10 important areas to look into when choosing an exchange.

1. KYC/AML

Different exchanges comply with different laws and regulations, based on their locations, practices and offerings. Some exchanges have Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) practices, requiring participants to submit personal information about themselves during account creation.

These practices and requirements vary from exchange to exchange. Some platforms require KYC and AML to withdraw funds or lift certain limitations, obligating customers to provide copies of photo identification and sometimes a proof or residence. Other platforms require such customer verification during the process of account creation.

Many crypto exchanges nowadays also ban customers residing in certain countries.

2. Reputation

Since the cryptocurrency space is still largely a new industry, it is important to be aware of the reputation of each exchange of interest. Many exchanges have been involved in nefarious activities, hacks and exit scams, leaving users in a less than ideal situation.

It is important to conduct research on different exchanges, searching them on Google alongside the term “scam” and evaluating the results. Searching the exchange on various forms of social media can also be useful, looking to see if any complaints have been posted.

Looking into each platform’s terms and conditions can also be helpful, noting anything that is alarming or out of place.

3. Security

Each exchange has its own chosen methods of security. Check to see if the exchange offers two-factor authentication (2FA). If not, then the exchange may not be acceptable by security today’s standards.

Additionally, look to see what type of 2FA is compatible. Google authenticator, Authy and Yubikey are three common avenues for 2FA as they arguably offer better security than mobile text-based 2FA.

Each exchange also has various other security measures possibly worth checking into, such as cold storage asset reserves and custodial storage services.

4. Insurance fund

Users can also note whether or not their exchange of interest has an insurance fund. Certain exchanges have funds in place to compensate customers under specific circumstances.

Other exchanges are covered under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which can protect a specified amount of U.S. users’ funds.

5. Fiat exchange

Traders and investors at some point in their careers likely will require a fiat compatible exchange, allowing them to transfer national currencies (USD, CAD, etc.) into the crypto world for trading use, and out of the crypto world to cash out profits.

Some exchanges have different fiat options, compatible with specific banks, and some do not. Checking to see which banks exchanges work with, as well as what types of fiat currencies are tradable, may be necessary.

6. Leverage trading

Derivatives exchanges frequently offer leverage trading. Leverage essentially allows traders to borrow a certain amount of funds for trades, based on the amount of funds they hold on the exchange.

Leverage may be important for traders looking to enter short-term positions with larger size. Multiple exchanges offer anywhere from 1x to 100x leverage, although different platforms may have varying rules regarding liquidation levels and margin calls.

7. Volume

Trading platforms vary based on the number of participants using them at any given time, as well as the amount of each asset being traded. This aspect can be important as it affects how easily users can enter or exit positions.

If a trader is looking to sell 100 BTC, he or she likely will not be able to do so on a low-volume exchange as not enough sellers may exist at the current listed market price, forcing the trader to sell to lower offers on the exchange.

Volume issues often complicate altcoin positions on certain exchanges, making it difficult to buy or sell large amounts of those assets.

Checking volume can be a difficult task sometimes, due to exchanges posting fake volume. One method involves looking at the order book on different exchanges, taking note of what amounts of each asset sit in the order book and how far the price levels are from one another.

Another way to assess volume is to check third-party websites that offer this type of data. Coingecko, Coin360, CoinMarketCap and others more are options that list different types of volume data.

8. Prices

Asset prices also vary across multiple exchanges. Crypto assets might trade higher or lower on one exchange versus another due to participant location (China-based exchanges can sometimes pump more), volume and other factors. Noting these discrepancies can factor into choosing an exchange, especially when altcoins are concerned.

Price discrepancy can also be a red flag that a given exchange may suffer from low liquidity/volume.

9. Asset selection

Top digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) are widely available on most crypto exchanges. Other smaller cap coins and tokens, however, may not be available on certain exchanges.

Therefore, it can be important to know which crypto assets each exchange offers, selecting the appropriate options.

10. Fees

Most exchanges charge a small fee for each trade. These fees vary based on the platform, and are usually based on a percentage of each trade.

Fees may not be as important to investors as they are to traders. Traders buy and sell more frequently, racking up fees more often, although this depends on the size of each trade versus investment sizing.

Some exchanges also have withdrawal fees and limits.

DYOR

Doing your own research (DYOR) is one of the most important aspects of engagement in the crypto space — not just regarding exchanges, but the entire industry as a whole.

The above 10 aspects can be good examples of things to consider and research when choosing a centralised crypto exchange, although they will vary from person to person based on their goals, values and activities. Moreover, with decentralised exchanges are also similar but there is a short list just because you keep your own assets not the exchange. Skepticism and research may prove more valuable than not in the young and developing crypto industry.

Reference: Cointelegraph

Tags: #CryptoExchange, #DecentralizedExchange, #FDIC

Source: https://xeonbit.com/choosing-centralised-crypto-exchange-follow-10-golden-rules/

What were happening? Hodlers Digest Dec 2nd-8th

Top Stories Last Week

Ethereum completes Istanbul hard fork

It’s happened! Ethereum’s much-anticipated shift to Istanbul has been completed, and the system-wide update came into force when the network passed block #9069000 late on Saturday night. Vitalik Buterin claims capacity now has the potential to reach 3,000 transactions per second. Istanbul is designed to deliver interoperability with the privacy token Zcash and make it cheaper to use zero-knowledge technologies that enhances privacy. Although miners and node operators need to update their client, most people who hold ETH or use the network are unaffected — and ETH prices are unexpected to suffer turbulence. Maxwell Foley, software engineer at CertiK, told Cointelegraph Magazine: “Ethereum, in general, is an exciting project because they’re trying the hardest out of anyone in the crypto space to scale without sacrificing decentralization.”

Upbit hack: Stolen ETH worth millions on the move to unknown wallets

There’s been some new developments after 342,000 ETH was stolen from the hot wallet of major South Korean crypto exchange Upbit. According to Whale Alert, a service monitoring large transactions, one of the addresses involved in the theft has been moving ETH worth millions of dollars to an unknown wallet. Dodgy transfers have been taking place throughout the week in chunks of 10,000 ETH and 1,001 ETH — worth about $1.5 million and $150,000 respectively. After news emerged that the funds, worth about $50 million, had been stolen, some analysts suggested that an “inside job” was more likely than an external breach.

France to test its central bank digital currency in Q1 2020, official says

The Bank of France is going to test a central bank digital currency for financial institutions in the first quarter of 2020. Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said the “digital euro” pilot will not involve retail payments made by individuals — and stressed any such project would “be subject to special vigilance.” The central bank has been clear that France needs to assert sovereignty over private initiatives such as Facebook’s Libra, with the country leading efforts to ensure that the stablecoin is stopped from launching on European soil. The governor has also spoken of his enthusiasm for being the first country in the world to issue a CBDC, allowing France to become an example to other jurisdictions.

“Hodlers are insane” – 64% of Bitcoin supply has not moved since 2018

Given we are, er, Hodler’s Digest, let’s give you some holding news. New research has suggested that a whopping 60% of BTC in circulation hasn’t left its wallet in more than a year. This is particularly telling since BTC/USD ballooned from lows of $3,100 last December to $13,800 just six months later. Markets subsequently reversed downward — shaving 52% off their highs. Rhythm, the analyst who uploaded the statistics, didn’t mince his words by saying: “Hodlers of last resort are insane.” With the trend of dormant BTC as a percentage of total supply sharply increasing in recent years — and remaining intact during bull and bear markets alike — it seems many investors want to save it rather than spend it.

Deutsche Bank research: Crypto to replace fiat currencies by 2030

New research by Deutsche Bank has revealed what the future might look like for crypto in just 10 short years. Its report suggests that digital currencies could eventually replace cash one day, as demand for anonymity and a more decentralized means of payment grows. Hurdles do lie in the way — and the authors say digital assets will need to gain legitimacy in the eyes of governments and regulators for wider acceptance to be achieved. The report also warns that the risk of cyberattacks and digital warfare could also pose huge risks to the stability of financial systems based on digital currencies in the future.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin is at $7,602.68, Ether at $150.47 and XRP at $0.23. The total market cap is at $205,799,442,442.

The top three altcoin gainers of the week are Energi, HedgeTrade and Enjin Coin. The top three altcoin losers of the week are ILCoin, Silverway and Thunder Token.

Quotations

“Free Ross, baby! Get him out. We need entrepreneurs like that guy! Get him out of jail! Why do we put these really extraordinary people in jail? We need their minds, their energy, their life force. Get him free. Who knows what else he could’ve come up with?”

Tim Draper, investor

“In Japan, the amount of cash outstanding is still increasing, and it does not seem that there is a demand for CBDC from the public at present.”

Haruhiko Kuroda, Bank of Japan governor

“Turkey is a vibrant country that has illustrated one of the strongest demands and fast-growing interest in crypto.”

Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO

“Hodlers of last resort are insane.”

Rhythm, analyst

“Bitcoin halving in May 2020 won’t do anything to the price. It will be a non-event.”

Jason Williams, Morgan Creek Digital co-founder

“Chair Powell and I have discussed this — we both agree that in the near future, in the next five years, we see no need for the Fed to issue a digital currency.”

Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury Secretary

Prediction of the Week

Halving will be “non-event” for BTC price, Morgan Creek Digital exec says

“The halvening” in May 2020 — when the reward paid to miners falls from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block — is widely regarded as an event that will catalyze a bull market. But according to Jason Williams, the co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, these expectations might be overblown. He believes that the having will have no impact whatsoever on BTC prices, describing it as a “non-event.” With analysts bitterly divided over whether there will be a bull run — and if so, how quickly a reaction will take place — expect many more wild predictions to grace this column in the weeks and months to come.

FUD of the Week

Canada-based crypto mining firm Great North Data files for bankruptcy

Great North Data, a crypto mining company based in Canada, has filed for bankruptcy. The firm operated facilities in Labrador City and Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Bankruptcy documents show that it had $13.2 million in liabilities but just $3.5 million in assets. Reports suggest that the company owed six-figure sums to government bodies. It’s been a difficult time for mining companies, with Washington-based Giga Watt closing down in January because it was “insolvent and unable to pay its debts when due.”

Researchers detect new North Korea-linked MacOS malware on crypto trading site

Security researchers have uncovered cryptocurrency-related macOS malware that is believed to be the work of North Korean hackers known as the Lazarus Group. It is believed that the malware can retrieve a payload from a remote location and run it in memory — something that is not common for macOS. This resultantly means it can be difficult to detect the malware and carry out forensic analysis — with only 10 antivirus engines actually flagging it as malicious. “Clear overlaps” have also been found with malware that was detected by another group of security researchers in the middle of October.

Reference: Cointelegraph

Tags: #Bitcoin, #CBDC, #Deutsche, #ETH, #Ethereum, #Facebook, #France, #Istanbul, #Libra, #Upbit, #VitalikButerin, #XRP

Source: https://xeonbit.com/what-were-happening-hodlers-digest-dec-2nd-8th/

Deutsche Bank: Crypto Will Replace Fiat-Currencies in 2030

By 2030, the demand for alternative currencies will rise, with digital currencies eventually replacing cash, according to the research of Deutsche Bank.

In the “Imagine 2030” report, Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid raised awareness of the challenges the existing fiat system has encountered in recent years, specifically with the emergence of cryptocurrencies. Reid stipulated that people’s heightened demand for dematerialized means of payment and anonymity could drive more individuals to digital currencies.

Mainstream adoption and co-occurring challenges

In order to gain wider acceptance, digital assets need to overcome three major hurdles. These include perceived legitimacy in the eyes of governments and regulators, which entails price stability and allows for global reach in the payment market. According to Reid, the establishment of alliances with key stakeholders like mobile apps and card providers will enable this development.

At the same time, Reid pointed out that with mainstream adoption, new challenges will arise. Among major threats to the purported digital currency-based financial system, Reid named dependence on electricity, cyberattacks and a digital war. “As that occurs, the line between cryptocurrencies, financial institutions, and public and private sectors may become blurred,”.

Examine CBDC

In the meantime, world governments have been actively debating the need to develop national digital currencies. Earlier today, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that there is no public demand for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country. Kuroda noted the increasing demand for cash payments and added that the bank had been conducting technical and legal research into the matter.

The British Virgin Islands has taken a more proactive approach to CBDCs, announcing that the country is developing a digital currency dubbed BVI~LIFE in collaboration with blockchain startup LifeLabs. The currency is part of a broader initiative to grow the local fintech sector. It will be pegged to the U.S. dollar.

The central bank of France plans to pilot a CBDC for financial institutions in 2020.

Reference: Cointelegraph

Tags: #CBDC, #DeutscheBank, #DigitalCurrency

Source: https://xeonbit.com/deutsche-bank-crypto-will-replace-fiat-currencies-in-2030/